Perseverance
by EvaBrick
Summary: DONATELLO FIC! Shredder's back, Splinter's dying, and Don falls in love with his soulmate; a feisty, beautiful bookshop owner who has a sad past, and a big heart. M/F.
1. Chapter 1

Mikey was missing.

Leo's stomach rose up into his throat as he hung up the phone and leaned against the kitchen cupboards. He rubbed his eyes and headed for the living room to tell the others. This was not good - the foot soldiers had been particularly brazen lately, but surely Mikey would have pressed the alarm button on his Turtle Comm if he'd gotten into trouble. "If he wasn't taken totally by surprise", Leo thought. Donatello figured that the Comm was broken, since he couldn't pick it up on the GPS system.

Since April had been mugged and had her wrist broken two months earlier, one of them would always walk her home to make sure it didn't happen again. April always told them that she didn't need an escort, but everyone knew she was glad they were taking care of her - nothing makes a better bodyguard than an angry ninja.

Leo stepped into the living room. Raph and Don were sitting on either side of Master Splinter, who was clutching his cane with white knuckles. The old rat was rarely emotional, but the turtles knew that he loved his boys more than anything. Raphael stood up quickly when he saw Leonardo standing in the doorway.

"April says she hasn't seen him since he took her home last night", Leo said before anyone could ask.

Splinter sighed and then shook as his body was racked with a deep phlegmy cough. He'd started coughing a lot in the last year and it worried the turtles; they knew only too well how short a rat's lifespan was. Don gave Splinter's shoulder a squeeze.

"I'll go topside and start looking around near April's," Leo said. "Raph, you start checking the sewers. Don, you check out all Mikey's favourite arcades, comic book shops and pizza parlours. Let's start with all the places we know he's been and then branch out from there. I'll give Casey a call and get him to help us look".

Splinter stood and walked toward the door of the lair. "I will accompany you Raphael. We must find your brother". Raph looked at Don and Leo and shrugged before following. There was no point in arguing with their sensei about anything.

Don went to the kitchen and grabbed a piece of paper from the shelf by the phone. "Just leaving a note on the fridge in case he comes back", he called to Leo.

Leo was biting his lip and frowning when Don came back into the living room. He gave Don a strained smile, "Let's go find our Mikey".


	2. Chapter 2

Leo and Don travelled up to the surface together, climbing out in a dark alley behind a dumpster. The manhole cover scraped as they slid it back into place, but otherwise they made no sound. They exchanged solemn looks and then parted; Don climbed up a fire escape to the rooftops and Leo disappeared down the alley.

Donatello ran along the roofs, leaping silently from building to building, travelling quickly to all of Mikey's favourite hangouts. Mikey had been unaccounted for for twenty-six hours now. Don jumped across a particularly large gap, gracefully rolled to his feet and kept running. He thought of a cop he'd seen on tv once who said that the longer a person was missing, the less chance there was of getting them back.

"What if Shredder's got him? What if he's lying hurt somewhere waiting for us? What if... what if..." that thought was too terrible.  
Don came to a stop on a low roof across from Mikey's favourite pizza place. How many times had Mikey dragged them all here? Then he saw it. Shining in the gutter was a very dirty, very broken Turtle Comm.

Don looked up and down the street, saw no one and jumped off the roof. He grabbed the lamppost in mid-air and swung himself down to the ground. He grabbed the Comm and dashed across the street, ducking behind the pizza parlour. Don hid behind a couple of big garbage cans and examined the smashed piece of equipment.

"Let's see if I can pump some juice into this sucker" he whispered to himself, pulling out his own Comm. He lay them both down on the ground at his knees and dug through the garbage until he found a bit of tin foil which he twisted into a tight stick. He pulled the cover off the battery on his Comm and used the foil to carry the current across to the receptor on Mikey's.

The broken communicator made a few pathetic beeps, and let out a flurry of sparks. Don looked nervously around, hoping that no one would notice the light. He pressed the clock button and through the cracked screen he saw 1:04am. "That's when the Comm must have broken", he thought. April said he'd left her place at about 12:30. "April's place is only about fifteen minutes away from here," he thought, "So if Mike left her and came directly here, there's nearly twenty minutes of time that's unaccounted for".

Suddenly the back door of the pizza place flew open. Don flattened himself against the ground behind the cans, hardly breathing. A fat, tired-looking man stepped out and threw a huge bag of trash his way. "Honey, I'm too tired to even walk to the damn garbage cans. Let's close up and go home" he shouted as he went back in. A woman's voice shouted back "Closing up early won't pay the -" the door shut behind him and Donatello was alone again.

He pulled a tiny flashlight out of his pocket and examined Mikey's Comm more closely. Something dark was stuck in the hinges. "It's either pizza sauce or congealed sewer water," he thought. Then he licked it to see. It wasn't pizza sauce. But it wasn't sewer goop either. It tasted coppery. It was blood.

Don flipped open his own Turtle Comm. "Guys...".


	3. Chapter 3

Mikey groaned and put his hand up to his throbbing head. A much smaller, five-fingered hand gently brushed his away, and he felt a cold, wet cloth cover his forehead.

"April?" he said, trying to sit up. Pain surged through his body and he sucked in his breath, afraid to move. A hand when to his plastron and another behind his head. He winced as he was lowered back down .

"Don't move", a female voice softly said, "You have a broken arm and a deep gash in your leg. Just rest - you're safe".  
Mikey opened his eyes a crack. He felt dizzy and the whole world swam before him. There was a young woman kneeling next to him, looking very worried. She smiled a bit when she noticed that he was looking at her. "Who is she?" he wondered. It was so hard to think... the girl from the bookshop. She was the girl from the bookshop. Mikey's eyes slid closed - it was too hard to keep them open.

The girl sat back on her heels. This guy was in bad bad shape. She wished she could take him to the hospital, but he'd made her promise not to. She sighed and put a fresh cloth on his head, then sat on the couch next to a huge stack of books with titles like "Emergengy First Aid Made Easy", "Marine Biology Vol. 7 - Turtles and Tortoises", and "Head Injuries". This last one was open to the chapter on concisions.

The turtle lay on the mat in front of her living couch, her coffee table had been shoved off to the side and was covered in bloody bandages, her sewing box, and some dowling she'd picked up at the hardware store to hold his arm steady.  
She had intended to get him to her bed, but he had collapsed here and she he was too heavy for her to lift. She'd covered him with a warm blanket and put a soft pillow under his head.

He'd lost a lot of blood, and he hadn't eaten anything in day, which according to one of the surgical books was likely why he wasn't fully able to wake up. The book said he'd either wake up after his body had rested enough or he'd die.  
"Great", she thought. "What do you do with a dead mutant on your living room floor that's too heavy to lift?" She stood up and marched toward the kitchen. He'd saved her and she was going to save him. She yanked open a drawer and pulled out all her vitamins. She was a bit of a vitamin fanatic, but she never got a cold.

"Iron pills, Vitamin C, and...Vitamin E." She threw a handful of each onto her blender and turned it all into a gel.  
Michelangelo whimpered and shifted around uncomfortably. He was running a high fever by human standards. She wasn't sure about turtles. None of the books seemed to mention what their normal body temperature should be. She grabbed a spoon and scraped the vitamin goop into a bowl and went to kneel on the floor next to him. He had opened his eyes again, but she could tell he was still very confused and disorientated.

She scooped up a big spoonful of the gel and put her hand behind his head to lift him a few extra inches. "Michelangelo, I need you to swallow this". He tried to turn his head away, but she pushed the spoon into his mouth. He gagged for a moment and then swallowed. She lay his head back down and went to get another bowl of cold water and some fresh rags.


	4. Chapter 4

Leonardo, Casey, Raphael, Donatello, and Splinter renewed their search for Michelangelo in the area where they'd found the broken Comm. Don went back up to the rooftops with Raph, Leo combed through the sewers, while Splinter and Casey roamed the dark alleys.

It was dark out, but not late. People had their lights on in their apartments and Raph and Don could see them, eating, watching, tv, and in a couple of cases, having sex. If they hadn't been looking for Mikey, they would have stopped to watch - they weren't perverts, they were just always very curious about girls. Raphael and Michelangelo had actually kissed a couple of them a few months back, but it had been Hallowe'en and the girls thought that they were wearing costumes.

They all hugged April before - she was a girl, but she was like family to them. She didn't interest them in the right way. "Not like her", thought Don, looking at a brightly lit apartment across the street. The girl had stacks of books all over her living room and kitchen in the apartment across the street. She had long, shining blond hair, pulled back into a pony tail, and she was slim and curvy. She sat cross legged on her chair, engrossed in a thick textbook. "Pretty, and a nerd", Don smiled to himself.

Raph came and stood next to him. "What the shell?! Do you see that?!"

"Yeah she's pretty, isn't she?"

Raph shoved him hard. "Gimmie a break! Check out the chick's kitchen table!" Don squinted and pulled a small pair of field binoculars out of his belt. He focussed them and gasped at what he saw. There were nunchucks on her kitchen table. Nunchucks with orange fabric wrapped around the handles. He looked around some more. There were bloody rags on her coffee table, and what was she reading? He zoomed in on her. "Caring for your Pet Turtle".

"Ho-ly shell."

Raph was already calling Leo on his Turtle Comm.

When Leo found them a few minutes later, Don and Raph were still spying on the girl through the binoculars. Don figured that Mikey was lying on the floor, out of their line of sight.

"There's a fire escape on the left of her building. That's probably the best way in", Don said, passing the binoculars over to Leo.

Ralph frowned. "Think that's the best way? What if she's not alone in there? What if Mike's not there at all?"  
"We'll have to take that chance," said Leonardo. "Besides, she has to know something about him. This can't possibly be a coincidence!"

Raphael sighed. He hated it when they had to expose themselves to humans, but it didn't look like they had a choice.  
The ninjas slid down the drainpipe and dashed across the street to the fire escape in perfect silence. They climbed quickly up to the fifth floor and peered cautiously in the window which led to a bathroom. The door was shut, keeping them from seeing the rest of the apartment. Don glanced at the stuff on the kitchen counter. "She lives alone", he said. "Only one toothbrush, and lots of girly stuff". Raph and Leo looked at the perfume and fancy shampoo bottles, nodding in agreement.

"Do we knock?" Raph whispered.

"Let's just go in", Leo whispered back.

"Won't that scare her?"

"Probably, but if she hears knocking at her window, she might call the cops".

"Good point", replied Raph as Don jimmied the window open as quietly as he could.

"She needs a lock on this" he muttered.


	5. Chapter 5

One by one, the turtles rolled gracefully in through the window and crept quietly to the door. Leo opened it a crack and found that it led to a short hallway. Halfway down, there was a door. Raph opened it an inch and peeked in. It was a bedroom. There was no one in it. He looked at the others and shook his head. They moved further down to the end of the narrow hall and came into a large room. It was a kitchenette area that turned into a living room. They saw Mikey's nunchucks and the bloody rags.

They moved closer to the couch, and there was Michelangelo. His left arm was in a cast and his left leg was bandaged. A wet cloth covered his forehead.

The girl was now curled up on the couch surrounded by books. She was fast asleep.

Don moved forward and knelt down at Mikey's side. He checked his pulse and stuck his hand under his plastron to feel his temperature. A bit high, but not bad. He nodded to Leo. Mike was smashed up pretty badly, but he was gonna be ok.  
The girl moaned slightly and shifted. She was waking up. As her eyes opened, Raphael jumped forward and clapped a leathery hand down over her mouth. Her eyes snapped open and she screamed into his palm. Wild-eyed, she tried to pry the hand away.

Leo stepped forward and sat on the edge of the couch. "Hey, it's ok. We won't hurt you. Just don't scream ok?"

"Or else…" Raphael added.

She shot Raph a dirty look. Don snickered. Raph could be pretty scary, but she wasn't going to take any of his crap. The girl glanced his way, then looked back at Leo.

"You promise not to scream?" he asked. She nodded. "Let her go Raph, she's going to be good".

Raph slowly took his hand away from her mouth, ready to put it back if she even squeaked. She sat up and moved away from Leo and Raph.

"Who are you?" The fact that she said 'who and not 'what' was not lost on the turtles.

Don smiled. She was so pretty. "I'm Donatello", he said. "That's Leonardo, and he's Raphael".

Raphael glared at her. "What happened to Mikey?" he demanded.

Mikey opened his eyes and looked up at Raphael. "She's cool, dude" he whispered and shut his eyes again. Raph visibly relaxed when he heard Michelangelo speak. Leo pulled out his Comm and called Splinter to let him know they'd found Mikey, then sat back on the couch.

"Ok", Leo said as calmly as he could. "Why don't you tell us what's going on". Don sat back in the lotus position and Raph took a seat in the chair. The turtles all leaned forward to hear her.

"Well..." she began, "I was working late in the store - much later than I normally do. There was no one on the street... I really should have called a cab, but I thought that since I only live a few blocks away, it'd be ok..." Don noticed that she was twisting her hands together nervously in her lap. He wanted to reach out and take them in his own, but didn't move.

"I got almost all the way here... I was just outside my building when these weird people ran out of that alley down the street and surrounded me..."

"Weird people?" Leo said, frowning.

"Yeah. They were wearing funny black hoods that covered their whole heads... with a yellow logo on the forehead". She shuddered a bit, still afraid.

"New Foot recruits" Raph said. "Sounds like a random hit".

Leo nodded. "Then what happened?" he asked. "How did you get away?"

"He saved me", she said nodding toward Michelangelo. "He heard me scream and came running... some of them ran away, but most of them didn't stand a chance..."

She swallowed hard. She'd been so busy taking care of the injured turtle, that she hadn't really processed the events until now. It was so horrible... this green creature came out of nowhere and tore into her attackers, knocking them every which way. His nunchucks spun so fast they made a high pitched 'woooo' sound as they whirled around in a blur. And when he hit them, the 'crack' sound of breaking bones was undeniable. Some of them fell to the ground, bleeding heavily and didn't move again.

"I kicked some serious shell", Mikey mumbled, gradually becoming more conscious.

The girl giggled a bit. "That's what he said at the time too. Anyway, I was a bit scared of him, but not really... after all he had just saved me from a bunch of street thugs". Don and Leo made eye contact briefly. She would have been gang-raped and possibly even killed, if Mike hadn't turned up. The Foot almost always took their new recruits out for "a night on the town".  
"It's probably better if she doesn't know that", Don thought.

"He told me he wouldn't hurt me... he said his name was Michelangelo... he said he'd take me home... I was so scared... I went with him."

"Asked me where I got the costume" Mike interjected. The turtles snickered, and the girl blushed.

"We were walking up the street, when a van whipped around the corner. Some of those weird guys were in it... they tried to run us over... we started running... Michelangelo told me that they were after him and that we should split up... he shoved me out of the way... I fell over". She pulled up her pant leg to show them the mess of scabs running from her ankle up past her knee and under the cuff. It stung and her eyes welled up with tears. "They ran him over and kept driving".

Raphael's clenched his fists till the knuckles turned white. Don frowned. The Foot hadn't tried that one before. Leo took a deep breath and sighed. "Poor Mikey...that explains the smashed Comm", he thought.

"He wasn't unconscious at first", the girl continued. "He was able to lean on me and get into my apartment... he passed out where he is now... I couldn't move him to the bed or I would have".

"You did a really good job with the bandages", Don said, examining them again.

"There's 29 stitches in his leg too, and I've been force-feeding him this vitamin paste".

"Don't remind me", Mikey muttered.

"Ok", said Leo. "Let's get you home, Mikey".


	6. Chapter 6

Raphael and Leonardo picked Michelangelo up by the knees and underarms and headed for the bathroom window. The girl followed them. "Will I um... see you guys again?" She really hoped that she would - she didn't have a lot of friends.

Raphael turned his head and smiled. "Yeah sure, babe. We'll come by in a day or two, k?" He passed Mikey out the window to Leo. "You got a name by the way?"

"Charlotte".

"Night Charlie!" Leo called from the fire escape.

"Charlotte", mumbled Mike.

"Oh, sounded like Charlie".

Charlotte giggled, "I like Charlie - sounds cool."

Leo, Raph, and Mike disappeared down the fire escape as Don came into the bathroom. He'd rounded up Mikey's nunchucks and protective pads. "Are you uh... going to be ok?" he said. She smiled shyly.

"Yeah... I think".

Don had never had a girl stand this close to him before. She smelled good, and (even better) she didn't seem to be afraid of him.

"Ok, well make sure you disinfect that leg. It looks pretty rough." He climbed out the window. "Oh, I left our phone number on your table in case you need us".

Charlotte smiled as he went down the ladder. He seemed worried about her - no one had been worried about her in a long time. "Thanks," she called after him. "Tell Michelangelo I said thank-you for saving me... twice!"

"Will do! Night Charlie!"

She laughed as he disappeared into the shadows after his brothers.

After Mikey had been put to bed, Leo, Don, and Raph sat in the kitchen with Splinter to talk about the Foot.

"My sons, we must be particularly careful from now on. Now that Shredder has figured out an easy way to be rid of us, we must assume that he will try something similar again". The turtles nodded in agreement. "As for this young girl - er...".

"Charlotte, Sensei" Don reminded.

"Yes, Charlotte... do you feel that she is trustworthy?"

"Don certainly does" Raphael said under his breath. Splinter raised an eyebrow and Donatello blushed and looked away. Leo shot Raph a dirty look and said, "I think she's nice, Master Splinter. She seems really smart and I think she even owns some kind of store".

"A bookstore", said Don.

"Hmmm... I think I should like to meet her. Bring her here when she is ready, but take a long, roundabout path so she wouldn't be able to tell anyone how to find us".

"Yes Sensei", said Raphael.

"I must now retire for the night. Please check once again on your brother and then go to bed yourselves". Splinter stood and walked out of the kitchen. "Donatello, will you come with me, please?" Don stood and followed the old rat. They walked in silence to Splinter's room. At the door, Splinter turned and said, "Donatello, you are fully grown and can make your own decisions, but do not forget that you know nothing about this girl or any other. Remember your ninja training; move slowly and with caution. Do not allow an enemy to use your trust as a weapon against you".

Don lowered his head. "Yes Sensei... you're right, I don't know anything about her... I just think she's pretty. I'm not deluding myself though. No human girl would find us... y'know... attractive..."

Splinter gave him a small smile. "True love, is blind to all features but the heart. Goodnight Donatello".

"Goodnight Sensei".

Don walked slowly to his room and flopped down on the bed. Sleep came surprisingly quickly.


	7. Chapter 7

Charlotte hadn't slept in two days and so as soon as the turtles had left, she went straight to bed, without bothering to take her clothes off. Her alarm woke her at six-thirty and she lay in bed for several minutes wondering if she'd imagined the whole thing. She crawled out of bed and staggered to the kitchen for some juice. Her scabby leg was throbbing - there was a bit of blood on her jeans, but she couldn't figure out if it was hers or Mike's.

She took her juice into the bathroom and turned on the light. Her hair was a mess, she stank, and her clothes were filthy. She turned on the shower and yanked off her shirt and bra. She peeled her pants off much more slowly - they were stuck to her leg in places. She stepped into the shower and watched as the dried blood turned the water momentarily pink before it went down the drain.

Charlotte quickly washed her very greasy hair and climbed out of the shower. She towelled herself off, being very careful of her bad leg, and went into her bedroom to find some clothes. She settled on a green blouse and a long brown skirt to hide the scrapes. She pulled her wet hair back in a loose bun and stuck some pins in it, before grabbing her purse and jacket. Every Thursday, the courier guy came to the store at eight, and if she wasn't there, he'd leave the boxes on the doorstep where anyone could get to them. He never went out of his way for a customer, but he was cheap.

She walked as quickly as she could when she came to the place where Mikey had been hit by the van. She hoped he was ok.  
She got to the store at ten to eight, unlocked the door, and flipped the 'closed' sign to 'open'. She chucked her purse in the back room and snapped on the lights. Charlotte liked to arrive and check everything out before her employees turned up at eighty-thirty. She loved her store and it made her happy to walk through the aisles of books with a cup of coffee and think of ways to improve the place.

***

Thursday was always a busy day and today was no exception. Charlotte's three employees, Dave, Lisa, and Mark were on their feet all day dealing with the flood of customers, while Charlotte spent several hours answering the phone, taking orders for rare and specialty books.

When seven o'clock finally rolled around, and everyone went home, Charlotte flipped the sign back to 'closed' and went into the back to shut the computer off and get her purse. The silence in the store was suddenly interrupted by the familiar 'ding-a-ling-a-ling' sound of the bell above the door. "Sorry, we're closed!" she called, heading out to see who it was.

A very big man stood in the doorway wearing a trench coat and fedora. He walked toward her, looking nervously around.

"You alone?" he asked, reaching for the belt around his waist.

Charlotte started backing up. She grabbed the cordless phone and started punching in 9-1-1. "I'm calling the cops. Get out!"

The man stopped where he was, and finished untying his belt.


	8. Chapter 8

The stranger pulled open his coat and took off the fedora. "Hey, it's ok", he smiled.

"Donatello!"

"Hey Charlie... Sorry I scared you. I didn't mean to". The last thing he wanted was for her to be afraid of him. He was hoping that he'd be able to stand as close to her as he did yesterday.

Charlotte sighed heavily and put the phone down. Her pulse was racing. "That's ok, Donatello. I thought you were... well... I guess I should have locked the door... How's Mikey?" She smiled weakly and went to turn off the coffee pot in the back room.

She felt very shaky.

Don felt like an idiot. What was he thinking, walking in on her like that? She'd probably thought he was some kind of pervert!

"He's doing pretty well. He ate a bit of stuff earlier this afternoon". Don followed her to the back of the store and leaned against the doorjamb of her little office.

"Charlie... I really am sorry". He hung his head. "It was unthinking of me. You had a nasty scare the other night and It should have occurred to me that I might frighten you. I'll call next time so you know I'm coming, ok?" He looked up hopefully.

She smiled at him and picked her jacket up from the back of a chair. She put her hand on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze, mentally noting that he had the same big muscles she'd felt on Mike while she was putting him back together. "You're forgiven". Don smiled down at her. He wanted to tell her how good she looked in that outfit.

"How did you know this was my store, anyway?" Charlie asked.

Don shrugged, "Only bookstore in the area." He glanced at some of the shelves. "Do you have anything on pyrotechnic wiring?"

"Maybe as a chapter in another book, but I could order something more specialized, if you like. You interested in gadgets?"

"Yeah. I like machines. I invent stuff in my spare time - my inventions don't always work out though". He held out his Turtle Com. "I made these. They're communicators. The reception's so strong, we get almost perfect signals on the surface from up to fifty feet underground! Sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"For bragging. Not very ninja-like of me".

Charlie smiled again. Don was a comfortable person to be around. Don pulled on his hat and coat before stepping out into the street.

"What did you mean about being 50 feet underground? Why would you need to be 50 feet down?"

"We live in the sewer" Don said simply.

They walked along silently for a minute before Charlie said, "Makes sense, I guess. I mean, where else are four humanoid turtles going to get any privacy?"

Don laughed. "Exactly! Actually, it's not bad, considering. It's just like a big apartment with no windows. We even have cable".

"Thanks to you?"

"Thanks to me."

Don snuck a few sidelong glances at Charlie. She kept smiling and laughing. He liked knowing that it was because of him. They came up to Charlotte's apartment building. She pulled her key out of her purse and unlocked the front door.

"You coming in?"

He smiled and held the door for her. They climbed the stairs quickly and quietly, wanting to get inside before any nosy old ladies started asking who Charlie's friend was.

When they finally got in the door of Charlotte's apartment, she asked "Did you come to say hi or to walk me home?"

"A bit of both" Don admitted. We thought you might be a bit nervous. Master Splinter also wanted one of us to help you clean up your apartment. Mikey feels bad for bleeding on everything".

Charlie chuckled, "Poor Mikey... wait, who's this Splinter person?"


	9. Chapter 9

Charlie stuffed a handful of, dried, bloody rags into a garbage bag.

Donatello had just spent half an hour telling her about how Splinter was a  
giant mutant rat who was once a Japanese man, and that the turtles were  
had been his pets until they walked into some weird goo in the sewer which somehow mixed their DNA with his. They lived in the sewer and fought some guy named Shredder and his army of foot soldiers. They were also supposed to be friends with that April O'Neil woman from Channel 6 News.

On top of that, there was now a six-foot turtle in her kitchen, washing her dishes. Weird. Very weird.

She chucked the now full bag over the back of the couch and picked pulled her coffee table back in place. The apartment looked much better than it had earlier. Charlie was glad she'd let Don help her out. She was tired, and hungry, and her legs was bothering her more than she wanted the turtles to know.

"They probably already think I'm a total wuse", she thought as she gathered up all the books and stacked them on the coffee table. Charlie hated feeling as weak and helpless as she had in the last few days. "I'm a businesswoman", she thought. "I'm tough enough to hold my own against men in a meeting or boardroom... just not on the street".

She sighed, looking at the bare floor. The rug was ruined. She'd tried washing the bloodstains out, but they had soaked through to the floor. A professional cleaning would probably do the trick, but she'd be darned if she was going to call a company to come in and clean up what was likely several gallons of bloodstains. There'd be no explaining that one. Donatello had helped her to roll it up and tie some string around it. He was going to get rid of it and the garbage bags when he left so no one would find it in a dumpster and call the police.

She sat down on the couch and stretched. Donatello had his back to her as he dried the dishes and put them away in the cupboards. Charlie had never seen anyone who was as physically fit as the turtles. She watched the muscles in Don's arms contract and expand as he reached up to the different shelves. His shell was perfectly symmetrical, but there were scratch marks on it. A couple of them were quite deep and it donned on her that these were cuts. Charlie frowned at this and shut her eyes, glad that he was there. She knew she was safe in her apartment, but she felt a little nervous about being alone. Charlie leaned back into the couch - she was so tired. Her leg was hot and sore and itchy and...

"You're bleeding", Donatello said. He was standing next to her, pointing to where a narrow stream of blood was dribbling along her bare foot.

Charlie's eyes snapped open and she pulled her skirt up to look at her leg. Some of the  
scabs had broken open.

"Did you ever disinfect that?" Don asked, squatting down to get a better look at her wounds. Charlie shrugged, embarrased. "These need to be bandaged. Where'd you put your first aid kit?"

"It's in the bathroom", Charlie answered quietly. Don hopped up and hurried to get it. Charlie stood up and moved away from the couch, not wanting to bleed on the light fabric. She walked into the kitchen and sat on a chair with her long skirt bunched up to her hip on her bad side. She kept the other side long. She felt undignified enough without Donatello seeing her underwear too.

Don came back with the first aid kit and some clean rags. He pulled out a bottle of disinfectant and poured some into a rag before kneeling down at her side. "This will sting a bit", he said and dabbed at the scrapes at her ankle. Charlie winced and bit her lip. It did sting.

"Hmm", Don said. I think you need to sit up higher to I can get a better look at this". He stood and bending down, slid one arm under her knees and the other behind her back. He picked her up effortlessly and set her down on the countertop. Don squatted down again and continued to methodically clean up her leg. Pausing now and then to put some fresh disinfectant on the rag. He stood when he got close to the top of her leg. Don was very proud of himself for acting as calm as he was, when inside he was marvelling at the fact that he was actually touching a girl's leg. True, it was heavily scraped and scabby, but it was still a girl's leg.

"How is it that you took such good care of Mikey, but you didn't do anything for yourself?" he asked, smiling at her. He blinked in surprise when he saw her face. He hadn't really looked at her in several minutes and hadn't noticed that her eyes were welling up with tears. "What's wrong? Am I hurting you? ", he asked gently, stepping back in case he was frightening her again.

"It's nothing..." she choked, looking away. "It just stings a bit".

Don frowned. "It can't sting all that much. What's really bothering you?" He hoped it wasn't because he'd been touching her leg. It'd be bad enough if she didn't want to be his friend, but he couldn't cope with it if he repulsed her.

Charlie looked at him with her bottom lip trembling and burst into tears. Her body shook and she wrapped one arm around her waist and covered her face with her hand.

Don hesitated a moment and then did the only thing he could think to do - he stepped forward and hugged her.


	10. Chapter 10

Charlie stiffened momentarily when Donatello wrapped his arms around her. "It's ok", he whispered. "Tell me what's wrong." He was very warm and she relaxed and rested her head against his hard plastron. She thought it would be cold, but it was surprisingly warm as well.

"I just... I feel... they were going to..." she choked out between sobs. Don's big hand rubbed circles over her back. He could feel her bra through her shirt. They stayed like that for several long minutes while she cried. She felt small next to him, but found this comforting.

"She's been in shock", Don mentally kicked himself for not realizing it earlier, although he was relieved that he wasn't repulsing or frightening her. "I guess we're so used to dealing with the Foot and getting into fights, it didn't occurred to us that she might not know how to deal with it" he thought.

Charlie gradually calmed down and relax against his shell. "Would they have raped me?" she asked quietly.

Don sighed and was quiet for a moment before answering, "More than likely, yeah".

Charlie nodded, beginning to process what had nearly happened. "They would have killed me too". It wasn't a question.

"Probably", Don said.

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

"Yes. Just the Foot though, and only when they attack us".

Charlie sighed and nodded again. "I don't know how to feel about anything, just now. I feel like the rug's been yanked out from under me. Everything's different. I feel different. I'm scared and I never used to be. I'm supposed to be competent and independent and I just feel like a big baby. You guys must think I'm pretty pathetic".

Don had to laugh. "Pathetic? No way! We're impressed!" Charlie pulled back to look at him. Don pulled a tissue out of the box on the counter and passed it to her to dry her eyes. "You didn't panic when they ran over Mikey. You could have left him there, but you didn't. You got him up and off the street before anyone saw him. You got him all the way up here and patched him up."

Charlie smiled and blushed a bit. "Oh well, it wouldn't have been very nice to leave him there after he'd saved me twice in ten minutes." She pulled out a fresh tissue and wiped her tears off his plastron. Don hoped she didn't notice that he stiffened as her fingers brushed the sensitive grooves.

He picked up the roll of bandages. "Let's get you patched up, ok?"

"Ok... thank you... I guess I didn't realize how bad my leg was...I hope it doesn't scar much", she said looking down at it.

"Sometimes when people are in shock they can't process pain very well. I think only the two or three deepest will leave a scar, and even then they'll be fairly faint. The rest will disappear". Don began wrapping the bandage around her ankle, slowly moving up her leg. "You hungry?"

Charlie's stomach growled loudly in response. She put her hand over it and giggled. "I had a glass of juice this morning. I was too busy for anything else."

Don grinned. "Do you like pizza?"


	11. Chapter 11

Charlie went to bed that night feeling much better than she had in days.

She and Don had ordered a huge meat-lovers pizza and had spent the evening watching the Discovery Channel with the open pizza box on the couch between them. Don really liked Junkyard Wars. He said it gave him lots of ideas of things to build. Charlie liked how excited he got when he talked about some of his inventions. She was used to dealing with depressed bohemians at the store. She'd never seen anyone so interested in anything. He was fascinated by every detail in the show, and at one point, he even drew diagrams on the lid of the pizza box to explain how he'd improve the red team's jet-ski.

When the commercials came on, Don grabbed their glasses and went to the kitchen for some more Coke. She took the opportunity to stare at his back. The turtles didn't wear any clothes, but as far as she could see, and she had looked, there was nothing of interest... uh... down there. "It must be under the shell" she thought. "I'll have to take another look at some of those books before I take them back to the store".

"Your bulb's burned out" Don called. "Got a spare?"

Charlie hopped up and went to the hall closet. "I think so, let me look". She fished through a box and found a package of 60 Watt bulbs. Don had already pulled a chair under the light fixture and unscrewed the old bulb. She passed the new one up to him. In a moment the room was full of light.

Don smiled down at her and jumped high off the chair, flipping before he landed in a crouch. "Wow!" Charlie cried out, amazed. "Is that a ninja thing?"

Don chuckled, secretly pleased that he'd impressed her. "Nah, that's something we learned how to do when we were kids... when Master Splinter wasn't home, of course". He grinned. "He doesn't like it when we climb on the furniture".

"Doesn't? As in present tense?"

"We have our moments," Don admitted, snickering. Junkyard Wars was coming back on and they went back to the couch to watch. One of the teams had cut too many corners and was running into wiring problems.

"Don?" she asked tentatively, turning to face him.

He grabbed another piece of pizza, and didn't take his eyes off the tv. "Uh-huh?"

"How old are you guys?"

Don snapped to attention. He turned to face her and asked, "How old do you think we are?"

"Um... early-twenties?" she guessed, hoping she wasn't in trouble for bringing it up.

"Hmm..." he said, cocking his head to one side in thought. "That's what we think too".

"You think? Don't you know?"

"Not exactly. We walked into the mutagen 22 years ago, but Splinter had had us for nearly a year before that, and he figures  
that we were at least a year old then, so we're not totally sure about our exact ages". He smiled and shrugged before looking back to the tv. "How old are you?"

"Early-twenties" Charlie said cheekily.

Don looked over at her and raised an eyebrow quizzically, making her laugh. "Don't you know?" he teased.

"Twenty-four", she admitted.

"How does a 24 year old come to own her own business?" Do asked, forgetting about the tv completely.

Charlie bit her lip. She never talked about her family, but Donatello was so easy to be with... she shut her eyes and her whole story spilled out. She told him about how her father was a poet and her mother was a novelist and how they fought all the time and finally got a divorce, which didn't solve anything, because they continued to go out of their way to fight with each other and how she'd moved to the city to live with her grandfather, and how he'd left her the store when he died, and how neither one of them ever called her, and... and... she sighed, but she was too tired to be upset, and she didn't have any tears left after her sob session earlier.

"So you're all alone?" Don asked softly. She just nodded and took a swig of Coke and stared at the tv. Her mouth had gone all dry. Don knew all her weaknesses and failings now. She felt so pathetic.

Donatello didn't think he could imagine how horrible his life would be without his brothers and Master Splinter. He felt sorry for her, but he didn't pity her. Charlie was surprisingly tough and he knew she wouldn't want to be pitied.

"You know," he said, "You should be really proud of yourself. You're doing really well. You have a great business and a nice apartment". He paused and tucked her hair back behind her ear so he could see her face. "And if they don't call you, that's their loss". He smiled at her, and after a moment, she grinned back at him, her eyes sparkling. Don's heart jumped and he forced himself to take his had away when all he wanted to do was run his fingers through her hair.

***

At midnight, Don said he'd better get home. "I hope I didn't stay too late" he said, sheepishly.

Charlie walked with him to the bathroom window. "I'm glad you did. I think I needed to relax a bit... thanks for wrapping my leg."

Don smiled down at her. "Want me to walk you home tomorrow?"

"Yes!" she said too quickly. "That is, if you don't mind... I'm still nervous about walking home in the dark alone... I should probably take a cab, though."

"I don't mind. Really."

"Thanks" she whispered, gratitude etched on her face. Then Charlie stepped forward and slid her arms around his waist, hugging him, her hands not able to go all the way around his shell. Don blinked in surprise in the moment before his brain kicked in and told him to hug her back before she moved away. He put his arms around her and pulled her in close to his plastron. Don marvelled at how soft her small body was compared to his much larger, hard one. She rested her cheek against him, and for a moment he was able to smell her hair. All to soon, she stepped away.

"Night Donnie."

"Night Charlie." He hoped his voice didn't sound as choked as he thought it did. He turned and slipped silently out the window and climbed quickly to the ground. He waved up at her and disappeared into the shadows.


	12. Chapter 12

Donatello jogged through the sewer hoping the guys weren't waiting up for him. He just wanted to go to bed and process all the wonderful things that had happened.

A little voice inside his head snorted, "Wonderful things? Like what - bandaging a scabby leg or getting a hug? Boy are you desperate." Don stood still and mulled the thought over. Maybe he was just desperate and lonely…he wondered if he would be attracted to any girl who was nice to him. It was a sad thought and he didn't like it. He leaned against the wall and sighed. What did he like about her anyway? He smiled a bit - he didn't have to explain big words to her and she didn't call him a nerd when he talked about his inventions, "Like certain other parties do", he mumbled. In fact, she'd seemed almost… interested. Donatello smiled. Yeah, he liked the little bookworm alright.

But how did she feel about him? He started jogging along again. She seemed to be fairly alone too. "I hope she's not just desperate and lonely", he thought. "She seems really friendly, but what if that's just because I'm the only one around?" His heart sank a bit as that crossed his mind. He knew he couldn't realistically expect her to be attracted to him either. "She'll probably only ever want me as a friend." Don remembered how sweet her hair smelled and prayed that he'd be proven wrong.

***

The lair was totally dark when he got home. He tiptoed through the living room and into the kitchen for a drink of water. He fumbled for the cupboard handle when he heard someone breathing behind him and the overhead light clicked on. He turned to see Raphael leaning against the doorway, looking like the cat that had caught the canary.

"Weren't we out late" Raph grinned. "Have a nice time?", he drawled lazily.

Don lowered his eyes a bit as Raph straddled a kitchen chair and propped his elbows on the back rest. There was no right answer to the question, so Don just shrugged and turned his back to get a glass.

"How is she?" Raphael asked more seriously. "She freaking out?" he paused. "Can we trust her?" Don got poured a glass of cold water from a jug in the fridge and leaned back against the counter.

"A was a bit freaked, yeah… she hadn't eaten all day so we ordered a pizza and talked about it for a while." Raph nodded approvingly, but didn't say anything. He was a surprisingly good listener and he had suspected that Don would want to talk when he got home. Don sat down next to his brother and gave him the full play by play of the evening. Raph was cheeky, to say the least, but he knew how to keep his mouth shut.

"That pisses me off" Raph said when Don told him how Charlie's parents didn't talk to her. "What kind of parent ignores their kid like that? Fuckers."

Don sighed. "I think we can trust her", he finally said. "What do you guys think?"

"She did save Mikey's life… dunno bro… but we can find out." Raph grinned.

"What do you mean?" Don asked.

"I'll come hang out with you guys tomorrow and she how she reacts. I'll be an impartial third party."

"Yeah!" Don said, grinning. "That'd be great." They sat in silence for a minute. Raphael rested his head on his arms, and Don sipped his water.

"So you got a hug, eh?"

Don blushed a bit, but looked pleased. "Yeah."

Raph laughed and high-fived him. "Nice work, Donnie, nice work."


End file.
